shirting
- 1Fabric of any kind that is used to make shirts.
The tailor ordered several bolts of fine cotton shirting.
This shirting is too thin to hold a crisp collar.
Note
A cloth word built the plain way, from shirt plus -ing, the suffix that can turn a garment into the material it is cut from. As a mass noun it usually stands without an article: a bolt of shirting, fine cotton shirting. The plural shirtings names different kinds of the cloth, not several shirts. For the garments themselves, see shirts taken collectively.
- 2Shirts considered collectively as a group rather than one by one.
Like the word "crockery" for all your plates and cups taken together.
The valet returned a week's worth of shirting neatly pressed.
He packed all his shirting for the long voyage abroad.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from 'shirt' combined with the suffix '-ing'.